Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response Webinar

The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) is pleased to present this webinar on Sexual Abuse Prevention and Response in People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Meg Stone, Director of IMPACT Ability at Triangle Inc., and Mandy Doyle, Program Manager, present an overview of how best to recognize, respond and report allegations of sexual abuse as well as prevention strategies at the organizational level.

Part I: Recognizing, Responding, and Reporting Sexual Abuse: Approximately 30 minutes in length and is intended for direct support professionals, managers and other caregivers to understand increased risk for sexual assault that exists among people with I/DD, barriers to reporting, common signs of sexual abuse, and how best to respond and report to allegations. This also includes a brief overview of trauma-informed care as well as practice goals and examples of how to provide trauma-informed services.

PowerPoint Slides (PPT)

Part II: Organization Prevention Strategies: Approximately 60 minutes in length and intended for managers, directors and others who are positioned to make organizational changes. Considerations are presented for examining the organizational culture and environment to create an abuse-aware agency. This includes an overview of empowering/disempowering practices and key elements of different abuse-aware policies. The second part of this webinar discusses prevention through healthy relationship and sexuality training, including considerations for creating your own trainings, and examples of content to include (relationship circles, healthy decision making, consent vs agreement, etc.)

PowerPoint Slides (PPT)

Resources